Cory Booker’s communications director Anne Torres resigned on Tuesday, reportedly citing tensions resulting from the Newark mayor's controversial remarks on Meet the Press eight days ago.
“Effective today, I am resigning from my position as Communications Director," Torres said in a statement on Politicker NJ. "It has been a pleasure to serve in this Administration for six years, and as a Newarker, there is no greater reward than to work for the city that you love. I’ve had the opportunity to work with an amazing team, and wish the Mayor the best.”
She then told the Newark Star-Ledger that she resigned because of "different views.”
"I just decided it is best if I pursued other opportunities," Torres said by phone. "We have very different views on how communications should be run."
Booker, a rising Democratic star, said in a four-minute video on May 20 that attacks on Bain Capital, where presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made his wealth, were as “nauseating” as similar attacks from the right to resurrect the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
President Obama has since moved to clarify his stance on private equity.
In the video, Booker criticized Romney's business record – adding that he was frustrated by all of the negative campaigning. The next night, Booker went on MSNBC's Rachel Madow Show the following night to further explain his remarks and quell the issue.
Then on Thursday Booker sent several late-night tweets in which he apologized for his "mistake."
"[S]orry I made a mistake," he wrote to one follower. "I'm sorry that 15 seconds on MTP erodes my 20 yrs of work in inner cities around our nation."
Booker's chief of staff Modia Butler, however, told Politico on Tuesday that Torres' resignation had nothing to do with Booker's television appearance.
"It has nothing to do with Meet the Press," Butler told Politico. "It was an amicable decision reached by both the mayor and Anne Torres after working together to create a new Newark story over the last six years."
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